To Hell Dimensions and Beyond
by bodyandsoul
Summary: Chloe and Derek's relationship has been growing and changing constantly. They're in love, in lust and out of luck as a troublesome ghost seems determined to drive Chloe to the brink of insanity. What happens when you make a deal with the devil?
1. A Ghostly Reminder

**A/N: Good day to you, intrepid reader! :) For those of you who have missed the first two stories in this series, STOP NOW! Go hunt up "Life After Danger" (Part 1), and "Love You to Death" (Part 2) before continuing, otherwise this isn't going to make much sense to you. For those of you who have been with us since the beginning, you guys rock and rock HARD. My cousin Briee and I have cooked up a pretty darn interesting little story for y'all, and I hope you enjoy reading it half as much as we enjoy writing it. We're projecting ten chapters, same as the last two stories, and we've got an M-rating for a reason, so if lemonade isn't your thing, go no further. Anyways, please r and r and enjoy reading about our beloved Chlerek.**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we make no money from this, and we do not own the rights to DP or the characters, but if anyone wants to get me a nice graduation gift... *hint, hin_t*

* * *

><p>"<em>Chloe."<em>

I could see Mark's soul in my hand, eerie and white, like ghosts from the movies. I held his essence in my fist, a responsibility I wasn't sure I was ready for.

"_Chloe."_

I tried shaking him off, but I couldn't. His ghost lingered. His essence lingered. I felt him hovering, waiting, watching. I closed my eyes, pushing, straining, trying to banish him. But he just laughed.

Suddenly, I was pulled away from my nightmare. Waking up, I gasped, clutching my heart. But the dream wasn't ending.

"_Chloe."_

I glanced around my room but I couldn't see anything. No shimmering lights. No ghostly apparition.

"_, I'm right here."_ A laugh. The same taunting laugh from my dreams. From that night in the forest.

"M-M-Mark?" More laughter.

No, no, no, this was not happening!

He said my name again, his voice warping. I put my hands on my ears, hoping that this was just left over from my dream but my gut told me otherwise.

I killed him. And now he was haunting me.

His voice, calling my name, kept warping until it reached a high pitch. If Derek had been in the room, I'm sure he would have heard it.

Suddenly, his voice dropped and it boomed in my ears, _"Chloe!"_

"Go away!"

Moments later, my dad burst into my room holding a baseball bat. "Who's there?" His eyes were going back and forth in my room, trying to find a culprit.

"I had a nightmare," I said, feeling bad I woke my dad up. My hands were sweaty and trembling as I rubbed them against my thighs. "I guess I was yelling in my sleep."

After one last lingering glance around, he sat down on the bed with me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

How in the world would I tell my dad I had killed someone by ripping out his soul? To protect myself and my werewolf boyfriend, who paralyzed the guy's brother by throwing him into a wall? Oh yes, I'm sure it would go over so well.

"I'm fine. It was just a dream." I gave him my best I'll-be-fine smile and he nodded.

My dad looked down at his hands, where the base ball bat was and laughed. "Glad I didn't have to use this thing."

"Me too," I said. "Me too."

Mark's voice kept nagging in my head for the rest of the week. Sometimes, it would be just his voice, calling my name. Other times, I would hear him laugh at me, taunting me, but his words were a bit strangled. Once, he appeared in front of me, nearly scaring me half to death and I had to stop abruptly because I thought I would bump into him. That's how real he looked.

Unfortunately for me, it also made me look a little crazy, just stopping on the side of the street for no good reason. To cover it up, I checked inside my purse, so that anyone who was watching would assume I thought I lost or forgot something. For the next hour, Mark laughed and laughed at me.

Jaime had explained to me that necromancers have a glow to them, and based on what several spirits have told me over the last little while, I glow brighter than most. Just my luck…Lost ships seek out lighthouses, lost or troublesome spirits seek out me. Because of my extra boost of power, I can usually force any annoying spirits back to their afterlife, which is apparently impossible for any other necromancer to do. But just in case I ever ran across an extremely powerful spirit, Jaime had given me a few different ways to get rid of them. But when even the smoldering vervain mixture failed, I had to admit defeat. It was official: I was being haunted.

Finally, the end of the week came and I went over to Derek's for supper, stumbling on the stairs from exhaustion. I hadn't seen him that week, which was the only reason I had managed to keep my resident pain-in-the-ass a secret. I had held off on telling him because, really, what could he do? It's not like Derek could see or hear Mark, let alone punch him. But Mark's continuous presence was starting to bother me and the weariness was showing on my face.

"Is something wrong?" Derek asked as we set the table. Kit and Simon were in the kitchen getting the food ready and Tori was still upstairs. It was the third time he'd asked in fifteen minutes.

I sighed. I had wanted to handle this myself, but I knew that if I didn't tell him, he'd be frantic after a couple of days. "Ghost problems," I admitted reluctantly. "I think I need to call Jaime."

"Oh." He was silent for a moment. "I'm going up there next weekend."

That was his way of asking me if I wanted to come along. "I'll call Jaime and see if she'll be there."

He nodded; the problem was solved in his mind. "Good." Suddenly, he came around the table, where I was placing forks and knives. His arms came snugly around my waist as he nuzzled my neck, making me giggle. "Are you busy this weekend?"

"Well I was thinking of spending this whole entire weekend locked in my room writing my screen play about a werewolf and a necromancer falling in love…"

He growled as he kissed my neck. "I can think of other things that would be better to do in your locked room."

I giggled and sighed as he bit me softly. He pulled away so abruptly that I wobbled, but I could hear Kit and Simon's voices coming from the kitchen, moving our way.

I was pretty sure my face was a lovely shade of tomato, but Derek just grinned at me before going into the kitchen to help bring out the food.

I finished placing the utensils, trying unsuccessfully to ignore thoughts of Derek and I alone in the same room.

That evening after dinner, I called Jaime's cell. I was glad when she answered it; I hate leaving voicemails.

"Hey, Jaime, it's Chloe."

"Oh, hey, Chloe." A faint thump came through the phone as she adjusted it on her shoulder. "How's it going?"

"Not bad. You?"

"Great. I just finished the last show in my tour, so I get some well deserved time off."

"Any chance you're headed to Stonehaven?"

"Probably. Why? Are you and Derek planning a visit?"

I explained to her that Derek was going up and I wanted to tag along to talk to her. "I'm having some annoying ghost issues." A heard a snort behind me. I closed my eyes. Was it Derek at the door? Or was it said ghost? I hoped he hadn't followed me here.

"Well I guess you could call me an expert on that. I've had my fair share of those." She laughed. "Well, come on up. I'll see what we can do."

I thanked her and got off the phone.

I went into the living room where Simon and Tori were arguing over which movie to watch. Derek was sitting on the loveseat, waiting for me.

"Chloe! You need to help us. I want to watch "The Gamer" while Simon wants to watch this, zombie movie or whatever it is." Simon was about to start protesting. "I told him you see enough zombies you won't want to watch more on screen. So you need to pick one."

I was almost flattered by Tori's thoughtfulness. But I saw Derek rolling his eyes. I picked a movie at random, although checking there were no zombies or ghosts in it, and handed it to Tori. I went to sit next to Derek and he put his arm around me.

"So I called Jaime. She'll be there next weekend."

Derek nodded. "We'll leave Friday after your done school."

I snuggled into him while we watched the movie, unable to wait for next week to be rid of Mark and his laughter.


	2. The UnGrateful Dead

**A/N: Greetings readers! Here's the second chapter of our new story, for your long-weekend reading pleasure. Hope you enjoy! Keep your eyes peeled next Friday for the next installment.**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own the characters or the rights to Darkest Powers and we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>I. Was. Going. To. Lose. My. Mind. Thanks to Jaime's tutelage, I now knew that that was an absolutely possible and in fact a very probable future for me, thanks to my necromancer heritage. Spirits can be demanding beings, as I was starting to learn, and even though my powers greatly exceeded those of any known necromancers in history, sometimes a spirit can be next to impossible to banish. Mark was proving to be one of those.<p>

Tori was over when I tried banishing Mark again. Too observant, she had seen what Derek hadn't and had harangued me until I broke down and told her about Mark. Fortunately, Tori can be relied on to keep things to herself when necessary, and she had agreed not to tell Derek, provided that I try one last time to get rid of Mark and let her be present while I did it.

Which secretly made me feel a lot better.

I did everything to the letter. Jaime had mentioned that necromancers think that they need rituals and herbs and symbols to access their power, but that she had reason to believe that the power is within us and that all the paraphernalia is simply a way to help people focus on their objective. Because I hadn't known about my powers, I had never relied on rituals or incense or anything other than my visualizations to summon or banish (or in Mark's case, create) ghosts. But in the interest of making damn sure I never had to deal with this disturbed kid again, I had visited a local supply store and I had censers of burning herbs, chalk marks on my high-gloss cherry wood floor, a ritual cloth, grave dirt and (shudder) some corpse bits.

"Make sure to handle the corpse bits," Jaime had said, then she chuckled. "Or fondle them, whatever gets you off."

My face had flamed, even over the phone, and my blush came back to me now as I gingerly poked one of the desiccated pieces of what had used to be living flesh, my gorge rising.

"Think that's enough touching?" I asked Tori, who was watching in horrified fascination, her upper lip curled back in distaste.

"No touching would have been enough touching for me," she muttered, still staring at the dried lumps. "God, what the hell _is_ that?"

Swallowing hard, I poked at it once again for good measure. "Uh, a p-piece of finger, m-m-maybe?" Damn. My stutter was cropping up again, which meant I was more nervous than I realized. Fighting for calm, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before sitting up straight and reading the incantation that Jaime had e-mailed me.

Tori sat very still behind me, but I heard the low crackle of electricity as she readied one of her little zappers. She was determined to find out if they worked on ghosts, so if Mark gave me any trouble, I was supposed to let her know.

Matching my breathing to hers, I read out the incantation. I stumbled a little over the unfamiliar words in a strange language, but after I read it two times, then three, I could feel a slow, steady surge of power building within me, and my voice lowered and boomed as I nearly yelled the incantation for the fourth time.

"Weeeeeeeeell, well, well, look at this. Did you miss me that bad, honey?" Mark's slithery voice sent chills down my spine as his ghost took form before me.

"He's here," I said softly to Tori, and she aimed one of her death glares where I pointed.

"And you brought me a gift!" He winked at Tori, who just kept staring him down. "Ooh, a hottie. I like it when a hot chick looks that pissed off."

He glided over to her, his hand passing through her as he mimed copping a feel. Tori didn't notice, didn't even twitch as his hand went right through her body.

"Leave her alone," I ordered, and he seemed surprised when his body complied with my order. That was the purpose of the specific incantation I had used. It gave me a modicum of control over his spirit, rather than just throwing the full weight of my powers against him, draining me and possibly raising something better not raised. Tori shifted a little behind me, the faint rustle reminding me to get back to my point.

"," he singsonged, effectively breaking my concentration. With a wicked little grin, he leaned forward to catch my gaze. "Oh, I'm not bothering you, am I? Where's Derek, Chloe? He's not very good at looking after you anymore, is he? Now that he's fucked you?"

_How in the hell_-_?_

My hands, reaching for the chalk to draw a new set of symbols in preparation for the banishing, shook so hard that the chalk flew out of my fingers and skidded across the floor. Swearing softly, I lunged and grabbed it, forcing my sweaty hands into stillness. Mark kept it up, the constant stream of noise hovering and then retreating around my ears, reminding me of the mosquitoes that would get into our cabins at summer camp.

I wanted to swat him just a badly as I wanted to swat them back in the day.

Finally, too stressed and utterly disgusted by his words, I looked over at Tori.

"Here," I said, pointing right at him. She had been waiting for this, her face growing tense and concerned as my anxiety levels had risen. Now, permission granted, she grinned and whipped her handful of electricity right at him. It hit him squarely in the chest, and I don't know if the incantation had something to do with it, or if Tori's rare blend of sorcerer and witch powers were more powerful, but it struck him and stuck, little blue tendrils of electricity snaking up and down his arms and legs as his body spasmed.

"Oh, my God," I whispered, and Tori nudged me.

"I've got another ready, if he doesn't let up on you."

I stared at Mark's frozen, furious face for a second longer, then quickly sketched out the symbols from the sheet Jaime had sent me and added the rune Jeremy had scanned and sent to her to help me. Instantly I felt more in control, more centered, and I let my fingers linger on the rune for a second as I grabbed the second sheet that held the banishing incantation.

The shock didn't last long, then Mark was flying towards me, lips drawn back in a snarl, hands curled as he went for my throat. Instinctively, I flinched, even though logically I knew he couldn't touch me.

Tori grabbed the sheet that I had dropped in my moment of panic and thrust it back into my hands. "Read!" she ordered.

Like the first time, I stumbled a bit, but this time because Mark was hovering, screaming obscenities into my ear. He had noticed my earlier flinch and kept swinging his hand into my face, each time causing me to jump a little and lose my place. His relentless attack had me on the verge of tears, but finally I managed to get through the entire thing without stopping, and that swell of power filled me again. Raising my voice a little, I called out the last line and Mark popped out of sight.

The silence was abrupt after the screaming, howling chaos that had preceded it. Odd, because Tori didn't notice any difference, but I nearly wilted in relief. She saw my shoulders droop and grabbed my arm. She probably thought I was going to fall over. I wasn't entirely sure that that wouldn't have happened.

"He's gone?"

I nodded wearily and bent over to blow out the candle. "Yeah. It worked."

I wanted to feel relieved, but the verbal and nerve-wracking battering I had just taken was all I could feel.

"Did the zapper work?" Her brown eyes were alight with curiosity.

"Oddly enough, yeah, it did." I started rubbing at the chalk marks with a soft cloth as I spoke. "Usually nothing from our world affects a ghost."

Tori took the cloth from me and kept cleaning up the floor, so I started gathering together the rest of the paraphernalia. The corpse bits went into a little container that I sealed with relief. Everything got bundled into a little duffel with the ritual cloth folded and laid on top to hide the freaky-deaky stuff underneath. After I stuffed it into my closet, I half-collapsed onto my bed, my knees feeling a little watery.

"He's gone, Chloe." Tori's voice was uncharacteristically soft as she sat down beside me. "You look pretty shaken up still."

I calmed myself by looking at the picture of Derek and I that sat next to my bed. He was grinning widely at something Simon had said just before taking the picture, and I was laughing in the circle of his arms. It had been a sunny day and the grass had been such a vibrant green that it seemed unreal in the background. Seeing his face helped me breathe, and I heard his voice in my head. _Relax, Chloe. He's gone._

"A little." I shrugged off the uneasy feeling and shook my head. "He knew things he shouldn't have, though."

"Like what?"

"Uh…" Clearing my throat a little, I gave Tori a Look. "Like, personal stuff…"

"Huh?" Her eyes went wide. "Oh! Oh, God, like I needed that picture in my head!" she yelped, covering her eyes. "You and wolfie…ugh."

"Tori," I caught her wrist and pulled until she looked at me, "he shouldn't have known that."

I saw the moment she understood, because her eyes flared. "He's been spying on you?"

Disgusted by the thought that my special night with Derek had been watched, I nodded. "I think so. Either that or he just threw out a good guess."

Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, she tilted her head thoughtfully to the side. "Possibly." Then she gave me a bracing shake and got up, grabbing both of our purses off the floor. "But he's gone now, so let's go get some dinner and celebrate."

Stepping into my shoes, I mustered a smile. "Yeah, you're right, he's gone."

Yeah. Freaking. Right.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Yay, yet another chapter up in a timely manner! :D I'm going to get a swelled head if we can keep this up. Anyways, thanks so much for all the reviews, we read and savour each and every one of them, and we have come to the conclusion that our readers are the best. Enjoy chapter 3 and remember, reviews take a second and make all the difference for us! Thanks.**

_Disclaimer: We aren't Kelley Armstrong. We don't own the rights to Darkest Powers and we are poor students who make no money from this...if only..._

* * *

><p>I was just settling into my bed for the night when my phone went off. The buzz-buzz-buzz on my night table made me reach over. Derek's name flashed and I answered.<p>

"Hey."

"Hey. What are you up to?"

"Snuggling in bed without you."

"Damn. We need to fix that."

"Oh? How do you propose that?"

"Well, I could come over."

"This time of night?"

"Chloe, it's only 9:30."

I sighed. Banishing Mark had left me exhausted. I had done the ritual the day before, but last night, instead of being haunted by his actual ghost, I had been tormented with nightmares of him. "I'm tired."

"Would you be tired if I was there?" His voice was low and rough.

A slow smile started on my face. "Well, I guess that depends on what we'd be doing."

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?" I knew I was teasing him, but it was too much fun.

"What you would want to do if I was there."

"Well, we could snuggle." He groaned. "Kissing. I want to kiss you."

"Where?"

"Everywhere," I whispered. "I want you to kiss me everywhere."

"And then what?"

"Nuh-uh. Your turn."

"I want to touch you," he nearly growled. "I want to get you naked."

My face was flushing and I could feel a throb start between my legs. "Derek..."

"I want to lick you." He paused. "Your turn."

"I want you here so we can act out these things. I want to have you on top of me."

"Touch yourself," he commanded. "Put your hands on your neck and move downwards." I sighed as I did what he asked. "Are you wearing a shirt?"

"Yes." It came out breathy and I heard his own breath hitch.

"Cup yourself through your shirt." I did what he asked. "Rub your nipple." I gasped and I heard him groan. "Fuck this. I'll be there in a minute. Wait by the door."

The click told me he had hung up.

I nearly sprinted out of bed. I made my way to the front door, heart pounding, anticipation rising. I glanced through the peephole until I saw Derek's frame fill it out.

I unlocked the door and let Derek in. There was no "hello"; instead, his mouth was on mine and he picked me up, pushing me against the door. He locked it and continued kissing me.

"Bedroom," I gasped. My father was home and I didn't need him walking in on this, though I was sure he was in his room for the night.

Derek, never putting me down, brought me to the bedroom and pushed me up again the door again. I heard the click off my lock, and I grinned against his lips.

I felt naughty, and I was loving it.

Somehow, we moved to the bed, my legs still wrapped around Derek's waist. He threw me on the bed, taking off his shirt before getting on top of me. His hands moved their way up my shirt and in seconds, it was off. Derek's eyes were glued to my chest for a moment before kissing my lips again. His lips soon started wandering, going from my neck, to my ear, to my collarbone and back up the other neck. When his warm hand cupped my breast, he grinned.

"I called you from outside."

"I figured as much," I said, the words starting to scramble in my head as his thumb flicked over my nipple. "Unless you recently acquired super speed."

He laughed softly before kissing me again. His hands wandered down to my panties. Was I ever glad right now that I had put on a nice pair tonight. Feeling the laciness, I saw his lips quirk up.

"Lace panties?" he asked, his voice husky. "Were you expecting something tonight?"

"Not expecting," I said breathily, "just hoping."

He chuckled before slipping a finger inside of me. He continued to tease me slowly, building up the tension in me until I couldn't take it anymore. Shamelessly, I moved with his hand, trying to add more friction, until finally I fell apart.

Derek kissed me hard as my orgasm subsided and he reached over to my nightstand. Slipping on a condom, he pushed himself into me and I bit back my groan.

We made love quietly, not wanting to alert my father to Derek's presence in my bedroom. But even the profound silence was intense. I had to bite Derek's shoulder to keep from crying out when I orgasmed again, and he restrained his usual throaty growl to a heavy gasp.

Satisfied and in a dream-like state, I snuggled into Derek's embrace. We were both damp with sweat, which normally would have been a bit uncomfortable, but there's just something about the way skin sticks together after sex that's just hot. My eyes started closing on me and I welcomed the heavy wave of sleep. But just before I closed my eyes for good, I saw wisps of a ghost in front of me, two haunting eyes burning into mine. My eyes snapped wide open but the figure was gone.

Not all ghosts can always appear in their full forms. Sometimes, it's just their voice that crosses through, or their head (which was creepy the first time I saw it). Sometimes, it's just a dimmed version, a grainy image that you have to squint at in order to see properly.

Even though this ghost was grainy and dim, those eyes were ones that I would never, ever forget.

Mark was back.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Here we are again folks! Chapter four is up and ready for your enjoyment and chapter five is currently being edited...I'm so proud of us, Briee! :) Anyways, the drama is starting to rock and roll, love all the hatred Mark is getting as he rightly should, the jerk! I also wanted to say a special thanks to one reader who has been very generously reviewing since our first story, the lovely and kind _suzi1811_. I've got more shoutouts coming up with the next chapter, but I just wanted to say a very heartfelt THANK YOU to you specifically. We really appreciate the support we've gotten throughout our stories from all of guys are the reason we keep writing this smut! :D  
><strong>

**Aaaaaand enough with the mushy stuff, here's your new chapter!**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers and we are completely broke, so clearly we are making no money from this..._

* * *

><p>I didn't sleep at all that night. Usually, Derek can sense when I'm uneasy but he had fallen into a deeper sleep than normal, his upcoming Change and our lovemaking having exhausted him. His big body was curled around mine, normally something that I took pleasure in, but all I wanted to do was cry or scream or pull out my hair. I wanted to be left alone, for this burden of necromancy to pass from me. But I didn't cry, I didn't scream; I just lay as stiff as a board in Derek's embrace, too scared and too numb to move. I knew that nothing I did was ever going to change my reality. It made me sick, though, to think that Mark had seen any part of our lovemaking. Privacy isn't just tangible, like a closed door, it's also a state of mind. And my state had been invaded, my defenses left to burn.<p>

After an hour had passed without Mark appearing again, my rigid muscles finally started giving into the radiating warmth of Derek. He was a little too warm, signaling that he was due for a Change in the next day or so. Poor guy. He knew how uncomfortable I felt in the woods now and had been trying to hold off a little longer on his Change. Once a place that I associated with Derek, I now shuddered at the sight of them, a tormenting image of Mark dancing in front of my eyes every time.

It didn't help that he wasn't staying in my nightmares.

"Chloe."

"Mm?" I replied questioningly, turning around to face Derek. But he was still sound asleep, the total relaxation of his features making him look so much younger. A shiver crawled down my spine. _Shit_.

"Chloe." My name again, sounded out slowly, savoured. But the voice wasn't Mark's. "A lovely, if somewhat unusual name."

A super-heated brush of air stirred my hair. Well, whatever this was, it wasn't a ghost.

"Who are you?" I breathed, trying to be quiet. "_What_ are you?"

A low, rich chuckle and another brush of that hot, arid air. "I am called Valefar, little necromancer."

Oh, come _on_! Can't a girl ask for a normal night after making love to her boyfriend?

This Valefar, this disembodied voice, belonged to a demon. But I hadn't summoned or conjured or done anything to call him to me, had I?

"You are wondering perhaps why I disturb your rest?" His wording was odd, but his voice was so rich, so deep, so calm and controlled that I found myself nodding. "You are great in power, little necromancer, so very powerful that your glow shines above all others. You did not have to call me; I have come because I have heard about you, heard of your power, and I wish to offer you a – how do you people say it these days – a helluva deal."

Suddenly I was back in the Edison Group compound, hearing the demi-demon Diriel whispering in my head, offering me the world in exchange for her freedom.

"I will not release you." My voice was barely audible but I was proud of the firmness of it. Derek made a snuffling noise and rolled over, careful even in sleep not to drag all the covers with him. I waited until he had settled, then repeated myself, just to be clear. "I won't."

A low chuckle spiked my annoyance. "Don't presume to know my desires, child. I am not imprisoned, I do not require you to free me."

"Then what do you want?"

The air around my face became denser and I could almost feel the burning heat of his hand (hoof? Claw?) stroke my cheek. Jerking away was instinctive but I was frustrated with my reaction. Dealing with a demon requires composure with no room for fear.

"Is this about the deal I made with Diriel?"

He made a low humming sound that I took for a laugh. "Ah, Diriel. That's right, she was trapped in that laboratory with you. No, little one, this has nothing to do with her and everything to do with you."

"M-m-me?" Fantastic.

"Yeeeeees," he said, sounding almost eager. "The Birithian Treaty is no longer in effect for you, Chloe."

_Huh?_

"Huh?" Oops. Didn't mean to say that out loud.

"Oh, you miserable little mortals…The treaty was put into place after a few of my brethren wooed too many ladies a little too young. Apparently your kind object rather strongly to impregnating girls before their eighteenth birthdays."

"But I'm not eighteen. What does this have to do with me?"

He sighed gustily. I felt the wave of heated air blast past my face as I pushed myself to a sitting position. I didn't have the slightest clue of where to look, but I felt more in control of the conversation when I wasn't lying down. I made sure to drag the covers up to my neck.

"The treaty was put into place to protect the innocent virgins of bygone eras. Modern times have drastically reduced the effectiveness of the treaty, thanks to section ten, subsection forty-six, paragraph three, line two."

Rolling my eyes, I gestured impatiently for him to continue.

"If a girl has passed her sixteenth birthday and has engaged in consensual sexual activity, she is no longer protected by the boundaries of the treaty."

"Wait, wait." Anger sparked in my stomach, burning through the fear in a sudden blaze. "Are you seriously here to explain to me that you want to knock me up with your spawn?"

"Precisely." He sounded delighted that I had caught on so quickly. I on the other hand, was repulsed.

"But I don't want your satanic semen anywhere near me," I snapped, forgetting to be quiet. "I chose Derek, and that's just the end of that."

Derek sat up abruptly next to me, looking around the room with his usual cautious glare. I could see his profile when I looked over at him.

"Sorry," I said, taking his hand. Man, he was really warm. Maybe we needed to take a drive to the woods tonight. "Just a particularly annoying brand of ghost."

His head seemed to jerk oddly as he turned towards me, and I cried out, pushing away from him when his usually reflective green eyes shone orange in the light of the moon.

"No! Derek!" Silly of me to call his name, the demon was in control of my boyfriend's body, and I knew it. It still didn't stop me from foolishly thinking I could get him back just by calling his name.

"Shh," Valefar murmured, and I shivered hard at his liquid voice coming from Derek's familiar lips. Hot hands wrapped around my upper arms, keeping me from fleeing.

_Fight!_ my mind screamed, _kick, bite, scratch! Get away! _But I couldn't do it, couldn't hurt Derek, even though I knew he was buried deep under the demon's will right now. So I forced my body to stop trembling and met the demon's eyes with the most furious look I could muster.

"Just think, little necromancer. It doesn't have to be a stranger. I could come to you like this, in the form of a body you already know and love."

As he spoke, he drew me closer. Just before he would have kissed me, I sealed my hand across his mouth to delay him.

"Anything you want," I said, "anything but that." He paused, considering. I rushed on, tripping over my words. "You have the most powerful necromancer here with you," I explained. "Anything you want, you'll have it. But not this, and you have to let Derek go."

Orange eyes studied me for one heartbeat, two, three, four. _Please_ I prayed. This supernatural rabbit hole that I had fallen into seemed to have every race imaginable, and I personally knew there was an afterlife, so I clung to my belief in angels. _Please_, I whispered again, my desperate plea loud in my head.

"Anything," Valefar murmured contemplatively.

Sensing his mind working, I pushed my point. He might ask me to give him zombies, to kill someone. My stomach twisted, but there was no way I was submitting to a demonic impregnation, and _never_ if the demon was using Derek's body. "Anything."

Derek's body collapsed back onto the pillows, and he immediately shot right back up, pulling me behind him, pinned between his body and my headboard.

"What the hell was that?" he growled, casting around the room for the threat. I touched his back tentatively. He was warm, always hotter than a regular person, but no longer burning up.

"Thank you," I whispered, letting my forehead rest against him.

"What _was_ that? Chloe? … Answer me!"

"Nothing, Derek, you must have had a bad dream."

After examining every corner of the room, he hopped out of bed and checked the door. Turning around, he pinned me with one of those Derek glares that used to work on me. "Chloe…" came out as a low, warning growl.

"It's nothing, Derek. Really." I was proud of myself for not stuttering.

Reluctantly, he loped back over to my bed and settled in, but his eyes stayed open as he stared me down, trying to get me to crack and say something.

I looked away, finally turning over when I couldn't take the suspicion in his green gaze any longer. I just couldn't bring myself to tell him what had happened. He'd be frantic with worry, but there wasn't a damn thing his incredible strength or genius brain could do to against a demon and I knew that that realization would just stress him out more. He didn't need that, not before our Stonehaven weekend. I made a mental note to talk to Jaime about demons while we were there.

Finally, exhausted, my body dragged me down into sleep. But just before I drifted off, I heard Valefar's voice in my ear.

"I'll be back soon, little necromancer. You've made a deal with a demon."

"Wait," I whispered protestingly, half-asleep. "I didn't make my request."

His laughter followed me into my dreams. "Too late, Chloe."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here's chapter five, all dolled up and ready to read! :) This is a pretty long chapter, but never fear, we're not going to give you a nice long chappie and then disappear for a few months or anything. We've been having a lot of fun coming up with predicaments for the group to deal with, and I hope you're all enjoying reading about their adventures.**

_Disclaimer: We aren't Kelley Armstrong, we don't own the rights to DP or the characters and we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>Derek woke up early the next morning to leave, so that my dad wouldn't know he had been here. Utterly exhausted by my tumultuous night, I walked him to the door and smiled as convincingly as I could, leaning as nonchalantly as possible against the door frame. He gave me a long, searching look before leaning down to give me a kiss.<p>

"You're not telling me something," he said suspiciously, lines appearing as his brows drew together in concern.

Always a terrible liar, I summoned everything I had in me to keep from stuttering as I held his gaze. "I'm fine, Derek, I just didn't sleep very well. I'm ok. Really."

Seconds ticked by as he studied me, clearly not believing me, but just as he opened his mouth to press me further, the toilet flushed from the en suite in my dad's room. If my dad was up, Derek had to go _now_.

"We'll talk later," he said meaningfully, and with a final kiss, he was gone.

I was close to tears as I hurried along the cold marble floor back to my room. After the demon had left, I had laid in bed staring at the ceiling. Whenever Derek had shifted around, I had closed my eyes just in case. I hadn't wanted him to see me awake because then I would have had to explain that it hadn't just been a dream, that a demon had actually found its way into his body.

God, I hated lying to Derek. Truly hated it. It's the one thing that I knew without a doubt had the potential to irreparably damage our relationship; honesty was really important to him. But what could I do? I had no solution and it would only stress Derek out even more because he couldn't protect me. How could he, when he couldn't see the enemy, couldn't touch it?

Now, not only did I have to deal with Mark's sudden reappearance, but also with whatever sort of deal I had made with Valefar.

Exactly what was it I had agreed to? We had never specified what the terms were, just that they could not involve me and him making some hellspawn.

Just the thought of that made me shudder. A little half-demon half-necromancer running around…that poor kid. Could my necromancer powers turn out even stronger in a child like that, my dark power enhanced by demon blood? Was that even possible? Part of me wished I could just look it up online, but I was pretty sure that Google didn't have legitimate answers to the questions I was asking. Should I call Jaime? I thought about that for a minute, but I knew that I would be going there in a few days with Derek and I would be able to talk to her then.

I was just worried that a few more days might make me even crazier than I felt already.

Snuggling back under the covers, I tried to calm my nerves by inhaling the scent of Derek and our lovemaking last night. But as much as I wanted to focus on those toe-curling memories, all I could think of were those eyes watching me, the demon's breath on my neck, Derek's beautiful eyes turned from forest green to demonic orange.

I didn't mean to fall back to sleep, but I did, and dreamt horrible nightmares of demons trying to rape me.

I was jostled awake by my phone ringing. Still half-asleep, I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"You going to bother coming to school?" Tori asked on the other end, the rise and fall of hundreds of students chatting in the background. "Simon and I are a little worried that you didn't come for first period."

_Shit_. "What time is it?"

"11. Are you sick? Simon wants to know."

"I wasn't feeling well," I admitted. "I didn't realize how late I slept in. I'll be there soon."

Dragging my body out of my bed, I showered quickly, not even bothering to wash my hair. I dressed even quicker and grabbed an apple before heading out the door. My dad was at the office this morning, so I called him on my way to the bus stop.

"Dad, I slept in this morning 'cause I wasn't feeling well," I told him, before he started worrying about why I was calling him when I was supposed to be at school. "Could you just call the school so I don't get detention?"

"Sure, honey. Are you feeling alright now?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling better. Thanks, Dad."

I made it to school just before classes resumed, waving at Tori and Simon before ducking into my class.

Trying to focus was torture; I could barely listen to the teacher. I was on edge, constantly scanning with my peripheral vision, convinced that Mark would show up. I was worried, and a bit scared, that in my attempts to avoid him, he would just come on stronger, and I would look like I was having a psychotic break again. All hands on deck for the hysterical screaming meltdown, take two.

It was a small comfort that at least Lyle House wasn't an option anymore, and Aunt Lauren certainly wouldn't be supporting any more admissions into psychiatric facilities.

When I ran into Tori between classes, she took one look at my tired eyes and shook her head. "You only look like that for one reason. What was keeping you up last night?" Although her voice was teasing, I could tell there was a bit of concern.

"Well, Derek came over..." I started.

"Ahh, so the good kind of not sleeping." She wrinkled her nose.

I nodded, not sure if I should tell Tori about Mark. In the end, I decided I needed to fill her in. "But there's something else. I don't think the spell to banish Mark worked. He kinda popped up afterwards."

"After….?" She gestured expressively and I felt the skin on my face tighten as I flushed.

Clearing my throat, I nodded a little sheepishly.

"The little perv was watching? Did you tell Derek?"

I shook my head. "I feel bad about keeping this from him, but I don't want to stress him out too much until I know what's going on."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?" Part of Tori's charm – if you want to call it that – is her ability to get to the point, but that was a little much…

"You want to prove that you can handle some things without wolfie's help, that's why you're keeping him in the dark. But hey, I think it's about time you ventured out of the playpen on your own."

"Uh…"

She barreled on. "Did you talk to your necromancer friend? The famous one?"

"Jaime? Not yet. I'll be seeing her this weekend when Derek and I go up to Stonehaven."

"We're only Wednesday. You still have two more days until then."

"I know," I said grimly.

Tori was thoughtful for a minute. "Look, if you need me to come over tonight for a bit to keep you company, I don't mind."

It was a bit out of character for Tori to be so nice, but I was grateful. Maybe our banishing session had made us closer.

"Thanks," I told her. "I would really appreciate it."

Simon popped up from behind Tori, sketchbook in hand and gaggle of giggling girls in tow. "Appreciate what?"

"Just helping her with her computer. She thinks there's a virus," Tori lied smoothly.

I nodded, too tired to contribute anything.

"Oh, okay." Simon shrugged. "So you feeling better?" he asked, looping an arm around my shoulders and sauntering down the sterile white hall with me. I could almost feel the angry glares directed my way by his latest fan club.

"Yeah, I think I was just overtired or something."

"Not sleeping well?"

Tori snorted, keeping pace with us. Simon looked at her, but when she didn't say anything, he turned his attention back to me.

"Just, you know, nightmares." I shrugged it off, pretending it was nothing.

"Since when am I a nightmare?" a voice behind me asked. I looked at Simon and Tori, whose eyes never left my face. Hmm…guess there wasn't anyone behind me. At least, no _tangible_ person behind me. Dammit…

"I thought you loved my little visits. Does it turn you on that I watch while you suck on Derek's-"

I closed my eyes and willed myself to be deaf to his disgusting comments, readying myself to push him away as soon as his spirit became more present. Except instead of Mark's spirit coming more fully into being, another, heavier presence made itself known. Simon and Tori weren't paying attention to the newcomer, discussing something between themselves. What it was, I wasn't sure. I was just trying hard not to react.

The heavier presence swelled, then I heard a strangled noise and one of the presences was gone. I felt hot breath on my neck that I knew wasn't coming from any real being.

"Oh, but I _am_ real. And I haven't forgotten our deal, Chloe. I thought that maybe if I got rid of this little pest for you, you would be more willing to accept my previous offer. A show of good faith, I think you call it."

I had to admit, a tiny part of me thought that if he could get rid of Mark for good, then I would consider his offer, but the rest of me screamed that it was a bad idea. I wasn't old enough to be having babies of any kind, whether they were necromancers, werewolves, demons or plain old humans. And let's not even get into the whole mess of emotions and ethics and…and…

I shook my head to clear it, but hoped the demon understood that to mean that I was saying no to him. When I felt his presence leave, I sighed in relief. The bell rang and I walked to class with Simon, who seemed to pick up on the fact that I wasn't in a talkative mood.

That night, Tori came over and we watched a movie. I wasn't really paying attention to it, but it was a nice distraction and I enjoyed having someone there to talk to.

It seemed Tori wasn't paying attention either when not even 10 minutes into the film, she turned towards me. "So Mark's back?"

I was wondering when she was going to bring it up. "Yeah. He showed up last night. But not in full form. Just his eyes and this ghostly fog stuff." The description was lame, but it was the best I could think of.

"What a creep." I nodded. "So did you try banishing him again?"

"No," I said, biting my lip. I didn't want to tell Tori about the demon until I figured it out on my own or spoke to Jaime. "He just kinda left. But I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. It bothered me that he was still around, and _watching _us." I shivered at the invasion of privacy I felt.

"So what are you going to do about it? I know you said you'll talk to Jaime, or whatever her name is, but that's too far away. You can't hide from this guy."

"I thought, maybe we can set up protections around my room?" I told her about the spell Jaime had given me. "They have it over at Stonehaven so that Jaime doesn't have to deal with ghosts."

"Isn't your necklace supposed to do that?"

I fingered the necklace that I wore around my neck. "It helps with regular ghosts, but it doesn't seem to do much for Mark."

"Is it because you killed him?"

Tori's bluntness made me pause. It was still difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I killed a man. Even one as sick as Mark.

"I had considered it," I admitted. "But how do I know for sure? Who can I ask about this stuff? Because I have never heard of a necromancer taking OUT someone's soul while they were still alive. I'm a genetic freak, remember? Most of this stuff shouldn't even be happening to me."

"Call up Jaime. Now."

"But-"

"No buts. Do it. And put her on speaker."

I pulled out my cell and found her number. It started ringing and I put on the speaker phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jaime, it's Chloe."

"Oh hey! How's it going? Why does your voice sound like you're in a tin can?"

"I put you on speaker because my friend Tori and I had some questions for you. About my ghost."

"The one you banished or another one?"

"The one I banished."

"But he didn't leave," Tori added, raising her voice a little so Jaime could hear her. "In fact, she got another visit from him last night."

"Really?" Jaime said. "And you did the spell correctly?"

"I'm pretty sure," I said. "He disappeared with a bang, like you said. Last night, he only came back as a wispy sort image, almost like smoke. And I could see his eyes staring at me."

"Is it possible for a necromancer to kill someone?" Tori asked. My heart jumped and I shot her a warning glance, but she waved me down.

Jaime inhaled sharply. "Is it possible for a necromancer to manipulate a soul to the extent that the person dies?"

"Yeah. Is it possible?"

If only the people who thought Jaime was just another ditz could hear the depth of thoughtfulness in her voice as she answered slowly, "Well, I guess it could be. Honestly, I've never heard of anyone powerful enough to do it."

"But if it was done, could the soul become linked somehow to the person who took it out?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Like I said, I've never heard of such a thing but I guess it's possible. The soul would be like a vengeful spirit wanting justice."

"It would take more than a banishing spell, right?" Tori added. "Like, a more powerful spell?"

"Chloe? Where are you guys going with this?" Jaime's thoughtful tone sharpened suddenly.

Tori and I exchanged a long look. _Tell her_, Tori mouthed. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about," I admitted. "I was trying to protect Derek and I lost control of my powers. I ended up tearing out the soul of the guy who was trying to kill us."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, but when she finally spoke, she sounded concerned. "I'll make some calls. I really wish you had come to me sooner about this. Not that I would have had more knowledge about it back then, but still. Look, you're still coming down with Derek on Friday, right?" I said I was. "Okay, good. Hopefully I'll have something for you then." There was a pause. "Give me a minute, and I'll e-mail you an incantation that might at least ward him from your room if the regular stuff isn't working. It's a lot stronger, but a bit more complicated. Maybe your friend Tori can help?"

"Thanks a lot, Jaime," I said, feeling a sense of hope flutter in my chest, but I was afraid to get my hopes up only to have things collapse again. But if the past couple of years had taught me anything, it was to always have hope. Maybe things were going to get better and I could tell Valefar to stick his deal where the sun doesn't shine.

I hung up with her and looked at Tori. She still looked like she had questions, but our immediate concern was going to be dealt with soon.

As I was hovering next to the computer, checking my e-mails every two seconds, my phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"It's me," Derek said, his voice taut with worry. "Simon said you weren't feeling well."

"I'm better now, thanks."

"Was it from last night? Was I too rough or..."

I laughed. "No, Derek. It has nothing to do with that."

I could hear his faint sigh of relief. "About last night, though. That dream... are you sure it was just a dream? Because it felt real."

My heart dropped. "Yes, it was just a dream."

There was a long pause. "You sure?" Damn. He knew something was up…

"I'm sure," I lied, palms sweating as they clutched the receiver. "Really, Derek, everything's ok."

"Hmph. What are you doing tonight? Is Tori still there?"

"Yeah, she is. We're just doing girly stuff." I checked my computer. Jaime's incantation was waiting in my inbox. "We just finished watching a movie." I clicked on it. I had all these ingredients stashed in my room, with only a few ingredients I could grab from the kitchen. "I think we're just going to make a snack now." Almost the truth. But not quite.

"Oh. Okay. So you're sure you're feeling better?"

"Peachy," I said. Not at all. My heart was hammering in my chest. I felt a bit sick, but at least I wasn't stammering.

"Alright. Call me if you need me. 'Night."

I got off the phone with him and before Tori could ask any questions, I turned the computer monitor around. "Let's get started. The faster it gets done, the faster I'll get some peace and quiet."

Once we gathered all the ingredients and mixed them, I said the incantation out loud. Tori helped me, both of us hoping that our combined casting would be effective. After a few rounds of the Latin, my pot of ingredients started burning and burst into green flames. According to Jaime's e-mail, that meant we were successful.

But unlike last time, I tried not getting my hopes up too much. After all, the first spell had been a bust.

I quickly opened the window, hoping that the smell of burning herbs didn't make my father think we were smoking weed in my room. How would I explain that I was casting a spell, not doing drugs? The latter option would just be easier to explain.

Tori helped me clean up before leaving, telling me to call her if there was anything. As much as I was glad I had people to rely on, it also bothered me to feel like I needed others to protect me, which in a way was true. But now I knew that when it came down to it, I literally held the power of life and death in my hands.

For maybe the millionth time in my life, I wished I was just a normal kid. Not a necromancing teen who had an evil ghost hell-bent on revenge haunting her and a demon courting her to bear his little half-demon babies.

I crawled into bed that night thoroughly disgusted with the current state of my life, and dreamt of Derek with burning-ember eyes and of a wispy figure with a scary grin.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Beloved readers, here's your tidbit for the week. Hope you enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: We aren't Kelley Armstrong, we don't own anything to do with DP._

* * *

><p>Derek was waiting for me the next morning. Kit's car, the sedate, nondescript gray sedan, was idling by the curb when the doorman opened the door for me with a murmured good morning.<p>

I was suddenly conscious of a lot of things; I looked – again – like I hadn't slept all night and my lower lip was raw from the number of times I had worried it. Defeated, I hunched my shoulders against the weight of my bag and realized with a sinking sense of doom that I simply didn't have the resources to lie to Derek this morning.

The rush of traffic was familiar to me, comforting me as I took those few steps from my front door to the street, my knees loose with panic and a vague sense of relief. Derek was going to be furious with me, but at least the truth would be out.

He checked the side mirror before opening the door; he had learned his lesson when he'd nearly creamed a cyclist one of the first times he had come by to pick me up. Watching him walk around the car to open my door for me, his eyes scanning relentlessly, I felt that surge again, that warm, heavy wave of oh-my-God-I-love-him. Unfortunately, it was followed by oh-my-God-I'll-never-hear-the-end-of-this, but I was resolute. The time of reckoning had come.

I just hoped I could get the message out without tripping all over my words.

"'Morning," he said gruffly once he'd assured himself that there were no rabid squirrels, zombie bats, head-hunting scientists or killer soap dishes in the vicinity. He didn't lean down for a kiss, though, and my anxiety strung tighter between my shoulder blades.

"Hey," I said softly, angling so that I could duck under his arm and slide into my seat. The door had barely closed before he was ducking into his own seat, methodically pulling on his seatbelt, flicking off the hazard lights, flicking on the turn signal and checking his blindspots before easing out into traffic. _He's such a soccer dad_, I thought, and unbidden, tears welled up. I realized now that I had been wrong not to tell him everything from the beginning. That was the strength of our relationship; we worked together. Derek's amazing, analytical mind and physical strength were perfect complements to my more empathetic, artistic nature. My fingers tightened on the strap of my schoolbag that I held on my lap as if I was trying to hide behind it.

I needed to tell him everything. Now.

"I-"

"I-" we both blurted at the same time.

"You first," I said, though the words were nearly bursting from me. Derek didn't often have a lot to say, so if he wanted to say something, far be it from me to interrupt him.

From the side, his face was set in unhappy lines and his hands were tight on the steering wheel. "About Stonehaven this weekend-"

"I can't wait," I said, mustering some excitement at the same time that he said:

"I think it's best if I go alone."

Oh. Shit. Clenching, my stomach suggested puking but I sent back a half-angry, half-panicked _don't you dare!_ and tried to play it cool, which under the circumstances was quite difficult.

"Oh." _Really, Chloe? Is that really the best you can do?_ "I see." _Aaaaaand the award for the most brilliant reply goes to…_

The traffic light ahead turned red, and the car eased to a stop. Most guys would be fidgeting uncomfortably by now, words parading non-stop out of their mouths to justify their reasons. But Derek has never been – and will never be – most guys. He just sat there, waiting for me to respond. I knew that four quadrillion different scenarios had already been run through his mind and that this was the one that he had settled on, for better or for worse, for reasons he may or may not feel the need to share.

"Why?" My voice came out plaintive; not only was I disappointed in his decision to go without me, but I was also a little nervous about being without him if something serious went down. Not to mention, I wouldn't see Jaime the way I had planned. What was I supposed to do now?

Derek took his eyes away from the stoplight for a second. "I know you wanted to come, but there's some stuff I need to do. Alone."

"Oh."

The only way I knew he felt a little bad was because he actually made an attempt to explain things. "It's wolf stuff. I'm going to be Changed for most of the weekend, working with the Pack."

Honestly, I didn't see why that meant he didn't want me to come, but when it comes to Derek's wolf stuff, I support his choices one hundred percent. He's the one who has to go through agony, sprout fur and fangs and a tail a couple of times a week and control his animal urges the rest of the time. Anything that I can do to make that easier for him, I'll do. But it didn't stop me from being disappointed.

"It's fine," I heard myself saying, almost before I realized I was speaking. "I understand, and it's ok. I'll go hang out at Aunt Lauren's for the weekend instead."

He looked concerned. "Your dad's out of town again?"

"Dubai," I said by way of explanation.

"Chl-"

"No-" I broke in before he could figure out how to balance all of this, "I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself for one weekend. You're right, you need to focus on the wolf stuff and on Pack stuff. I'll come with you another time."

By that time we had pulled up in the parking lot at A.R. Gurney. Derek put the car in Park and turned to look at me. No, "look" is too bland a term. He examined me, stripped away the layers of emotions and read what was really going on.

"What aren't you telling me? No," he growled, putting up a hand, palm out when I started to shake my head, "don't lie to me again. Something's going on. I've tried to let it go. Simon was up my ass all last week, reminding me not to push, that girls need their secrets and all that crap." He leaned forward, his eyes unsure. That killed me more than anger or frustration or yelling would have. That I could make Derek Souza, one of the most confident, capable, self-assured people that I knew unsure…that cut deep. "What's going on, Chloe?"

I meant to tell him. Really, I did. But just as I opened my mouth, Simon banged on the window behind me, and I whipped around to see what was going on. "Some idiot just tried to corner Tori behind the office to cop a feel," he called through the glass. "You're gonna want to come see this."

Derek was already unbuckling his seatbelt, a low growl rumbling from his throat, but I put a hand out to stop him.

"No, it's alright. I'll go."

"But…" He looked from me to where Simon was waiting, clearly wanting to go remove a few limbs from the creep who had touched one of his "Pack".

"You're not a student here, Derek," I said hurriedly, wrestling free of my own seatbelt and grabbing my bag. "Let's not give ourselves any more problems or draw any more attention than we need, ok?"

His shoulders tightened, his body straining to do its thing, to wreak havoc in wolf form on those who threatened his family, but his mind finally won out and he sat back with a frustrated hiss. "I'll wait here. Call me if you need me."

I didn't even wait to give him a kiss or sling my bag over my shoulder; I raced off towards Simon, who was hopping impatiently in place.

As he hustled me along, he threw an impressed glance back at the car. "How'd you do that?" he asked, plainly fascinated by Derek's reaction.

"I told him the truth," I replied, huffing a little. Not having to run for my life every day was taking a toll on my cardio-vascular endurance. Note to self: who needs a trainer when you have scientists with tranq guns and cabals with rifles chasing you?

Rounding the corner of the building, the pavement softening into grass, I spotted Tori. "Oh, shit."

I knew the guy. Trent Birmingham was wealthy, artistic and good-looking, if you were into artsy guys. His disheveled locks always made me think of Patrick Dempsey when he revealed that it could take an hour to style his famed, "casually" mussed hair. Braided leather bracelets, beaten up band tees, ever-popular Converse and jeans that no straight man should wear completed his "look". He had never been hostile or anything towards anyone as far as I knew, but he had also probably never had a girl look him up and down with a sneer, toss her hair, snort and tell him to go fuck himself when he made a pass at her either.

Tons of guys had been after Tori since our first day, but most had given up when she had – sometimes nicely, sometimes not – turned them down. Trent didn't seem capable of letting it go, though, but she had taken it with a grain of salt until now.

"Is Tori ok?" I asked as we approached.

Simon grimaced. "Oh, she's fine. It's Trent I'm worried about, and his ability to father children after this little run-in."

Wincing, I cast a quick look around. It was still pretty early, so only a couple of people had noticed the altercation, and I was counting on peoples' tendencies to explain magical stuff away to keep this from becoming a major issue.

"Tori!" I called to her back as I reached her. "Tori, let him go."

"Fuck off," was my answer. Tori had Trent backed into a corner – literally. He had his back pressed up against the junction of two brick walls and Tori – looking like a dark avenging angel – blocking his way out. It was only when I was at her shoulder that I realized she had him immobilized with a spell and droplets of sweat were mixing with tears as they ran down his face.

I almost felt bad for the guy. Almost.

"For god's sake," Simon hissed, yanking at her right elbow, "you're drawing way too much attention right now!"

"What are you doing?" I murmured in her ear, keeping my voice low.

"Binding spell, a silencing spell and a little something special that I came up with for little shit-head rapist-y type guys like this." Her eyes were burning with fury when she finally looked at me. "Guys who think it's ok to grab girls like that deserve worse than this."

Trent must have heard that last part because a fresh wave of sweat beaded and slid down his face. His nose was starting to run, too, and I knew that if Tori hadn't had the silencing spell on him, he'd be whimpering in agony.

"You have to let him go." I put as much authority into my voice as possible. "Yes, he's a jerk. Yes, he deserves this. But we can't draw attention right now. None of us want to have to run again, and I know you don't want to, either."

"Tori," Simon said softly, "please."

We waited there with bated breath, counting the seconds until finally she took a deep breath, murmured a few more words in Latin and stepped back. Trent's eyes rolled up and he collapsed on the ground, unconscious, the binding spell released.

"Check him out and try to explain this, please," I whispered to Simon as I grabbed Tori's arm and dragged her away with me. "Come on, we'll make it look like we're going to get help."

As I hauled her along with me, I made sure to detour just a bit so that I could pass the parking lot and wave Derek off. He acknowledged my signal and pulled away after scowling for a few moments at Tori.

"I'm so tired of this." The soft, tired words didn't sound like they came from Tori, but they did.

"The running?" I knew she had hated our fugitive time; we all had. No friends, no social life, constantly looking over our shoulders every time we went into a 7-Eleven. Being with Derek, exploring the newness of our relationship was the only thing that had made that time bearable for me. A soft glow warmed me as I remembered.

"No." Her voice broke me out of my reverie. She waved back towards where Simon was doing his people-charming thing and convincing them that Trent had simply fainted in the middle of an argument with Tori or something. "That."

I didn't say anything, sensing that she'd talk as long as I was listening.

Brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear, she sighed. "I was always a guy's girl when I was younger. My sister was like you, all blond and cheerleader-y, but I was always hanging out with the computer nerds. That was fun, being judged on my abilities and not my looks. But now…"

I could see what she was talking about. Tori had been pretty when I'd first met her, but now maturity was turning her into something more than just merely "pretty". She'd attracted a lot of attention at school, and she dated almost as much as Simon did, but like her brother, she never really got serious with anyone.

"The guys that ask me out think I'll do whatever they want if they push enough."

"So why don't you ask out someone that you really like, then?" That seemed obvious to me, but from her irritated look, it wasn't that simple in her mind.

"You don't get it, _Princess_ Chloe," she snapped. "You and Derek don't have secrets; he knows about your freaky powers and you know that he turns into Scooby Doo every week. Have you ever thought about what you'd do if you weren't with him? How you could date someone, fall in love with someone, who had _no_ idea who you really were?"

That had never crossed my mind, to be honest. I had known Derek since I had known about my powers, so that had never been an issue. Tori and Simon's off-hand dating attitudes suddenly started making sense.

"If I went out with someone, he couldn't know about me being a witch. I'd have to give him a fake last name because killer scientists and crazed cabal dudes are still after us and we'd all have to walk on eggshells the entire time around him, just in case you raise some zombie roadkill, or Derek loses his temper and starts Changing before we can hustle him out to the woods. What kind of life could I have with someone, huh? Secrets? Lies? Like my mo- _Diane_ had with her husband? That's not a life, Chloe."

Tori's voice had started out strident and angry but her last words were almost whispered and I caught a vague sheen in her eyes before she turned her head away, busying her hands with opening the door that would lead us to the office.

I would have tried to give her a hug, but I wasn't sure how Tori would take the gesture and I didn't want her think it was given out of pity.

"You don't know how lucky you are, not having to lie to Derek," she said simply before summoning up a panicked look and dashing into the office. "Mrs. Cready, Trent Birmingham fainted or he's having a seizure or something out on the field. Come quick!"

Mrs. Cready, followed by the principal and the school nurse dashed out, following Tori back to Trent, but I just sat down in one of the plastic chairs and put my head in my hands.

I had just realized that I still hadn't told Derek about Mark.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Read and enjoy! :)**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers or the characters and we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>The fact that I hadn't told Derek the truth bothered me for the rest of the day. But when I tried calling him when I got to Aunt Lauren's, I got a voicemail. I didn't leave one, thinking I would call him again later. But at 9, when I called him hoping we could talk, it went to voicemail again.<p>

"Hey Derek, just hoped we could talk. I guess you're busy getting ready for tomorrow. Call me before you leave, okay? Love you, good night."

I had an uneasy feeling about it all. It wasn't like Derek to not pick up for so long. He would have seen my number on his phone.

A hot blast of air blew across my face, lifting my hair. "Maybe he doesn't want to talk to you. After all, he knows you're hiding something. Why else did he decide to go to Stonehaven without you?"

My back stiffened.

"Go away, Valefar."

"Any man would be tormented by his lover's inability to confide in him. Then again, how tormented would he be to know how easily I could slip into his body and have you spawn my child?"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"You made a deal with me. Now we need to agree to the terms. I will get rid of your pest for good and in exchange, I will need something. And since you refuse my offer of spawning my child…"

"It's still no for that." I told him. "What do you want?"

Instead of answering my question, he ignored it. "Your wolf is upset with you. His pride is hurt. But if you were to get pregnant with a child, he would think it was his. As a wolf, he would be bound to you for the rest of his life."

"I wouldn't want to trap him to me with a child he believes is his!" I said, shocked and disgusted at the idea.

"Not all women have the same mind as you, Chloe." He sounded almost amused. "There are some who would do anything to keep their lover at their side. You have proven you would kill for yours."

I was confused as to what he was trying to do. Convince me that I needed to give Derek a reason to stay with me? "Yes, I would kill for him, and I have. But it was either us or Mark. And I don't need to defend myself to you."

"A powerful young necromancer like yourself shouldn't have to. You should embrace your powers."

I nearly snorted. Even if I chose not to embrace my powers, I would still have ghosts and demons haunting me, amulet or no amulet. And in the end, I would go crazy.

A sudden thought hit me. Did my mother go crazy? Could she also see ghosts? I pushed that thought away, deciding it was not the time or place to contemplate such things.

"Just tell me what you want and then leave."

He clucked his tongue. "This generation of humans forget their manners sometimes. I often miss the old days." I gestured impatiently. "Oh, fine. As you well know, I can inhabit a body. However, the majority of souls are strong enough to push me out, after anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour. Those whom I can stay in for longer, are not usually worth being in. However, there is a necromancer spell that can bind me to a body for the number of hours or days that I so choose."

"So you want me to find you a body and bind you to it?"

"Yes."

I thought about it for a moment. It would be a quick way to get rid of him. But I wanted to talk to Jaime first. Mostly because I wanted to know what the spell entailed as well as finding out what dealing with a demon would be like in the long run.

"Come back tomorrow and I will have your answer for you. But remember your end of the bargain. Mark goes away, for good. And so do you."

I heard what sounded like a chuckle. "At this exact moment tomorrow evening, I shall return. I will need an answer by then."

"You will have it." With a blast of air, he left.

I wanted to call Jaime right away, but it was almost 10 o'clock and I didn't know if Jaime would still be up… or if I might accidentally interrupt something. So I got myself ready for bed, hoping that I would be able to sleep.

I was so exhausted, my eyes closed the moment my head hit the pillow. But it was a night of fitful dreams in which I create a Frankenstein monster, made up not of seven men but of one powerful demon and one stupid necromancer.

I got up early to try calling Derek again and – again - it went to voicemail. I started to worry, but I forced myself to calm down. I would be at school in an hour and Simon would be able to tell me what the hell was going on.

I was just praying that Simon showed up to school today.

Luckily, he was waiting for me by my locker when I showed up.

"What did you do to him?" Simon asked me.

"What do you mean?" My heart was pounding.

"He left last night in such a rush. I thought you might have been on fire, but when I asked if everything was alright, he grunted at me. I brought you up and he got even more agitated. Then he got his bag, got in his car and said he would see us Sunday night."

"He left?" I said it loudly, unable to control the pitch of my voice. A few students stared at us as they passed by. "He just up and left without telling me?"

"Oh, shit." Simon looked apologetic. "I'm so sorry. I thought he would have told you he was leaving early."

"Apparently not." I was fuming. That's why he wasn't answering. "Why would he leave a day early?"

"Chloe, I really don't want to pry, so please, you don't have to answer anything if you don't want to. But did you guys have a fight?"

I bit my lip. "We didn't fight. But there was something I had to tell him, something I was hiding from him that I should have told him about right away and I didn't. And he could tell."

"Did you cheat on him?" Simon asked in a whisper, brows arched teasingly, but I saw a hint of genuine worry in the tense lines around his mouth.

My eyes went wide. "What! God, no."

"Phew. 'Cause if you had, I would actually never talk to you again."

"Simon, you know how much I love Derek." I had killed for him. That kind of said it all in my books.

"I know, I know," he said, raising his hands. "But honestly, when you said that, it was the first thing that came to mind." He cocked his head slightly. "So what's the big secret?"

"Remember Mark?" Simon nodded. "Well, his ghost has been haunting me. I banished him twice. Now, I haven't seen him since the second one, but…" I sighed. "Well, there's this demon."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Simon didn't swear often, so I was shocked at his outburst.

"Let me finished. This demon showed up, which, I don't know what to call it but, like, banished Mark away for a while. And he tried making me a deal. He wanted me to spawn his babies in return for getting rid of Mark permanently."

"And you said no, obviously." It sounded more like a question than a statement and I found myself a little insulted.

"Of course I said no! If I knew the word in any other language, I would have said it, too. I told him that I would consider another deal, just because Mark… okay, I know it's too much information, but he's been watching Derek and I when we're having, um… alone time?" I was shy divulging the information, but I needed Simon to understand how creepy the whole thing was.

Simon caught on quickly. "Huh? Oh…_Oh_! That's twice as gross because, one, I don't want to picture that and two, because that's just wrong for him to watch. So what does this demon want?"

"A body. There's a spell to keep him in it. Apparently, only necromancers can do it."

"And are you going to?"

"I thought about it," I admitted. "But I wanted to talk to Jaime first. I was supposed to have gone up with Derek to Stonehaven, but he told me that he rather go alone the other day. So now I have to call Jaime."

"And you're going to tell Derek, right?"

"On Sunday, when he gets back. I tried telling him yesterday, but the whole Tori and Trent thing interrupted us. Then I called him, but he didn't answer."

"You need to tell him as soon as he's back. Because if I know Derek, he will not be happy you kept this from him."

I put my hands up. "I know, I know! But he can't protect me. How can he, when he can't see, hear or touch the enemy!"

Simon was quiet. "I understand, Chloe. I truly do. It will kill him. But don't you think that you shouldn't make these decisions for him?"

Guilt ate away at my heart. "I know," I repeated. "I just thought I could take care of it on my own. I don't want to be the damsel in distress."

"Well, Derek does enjoy saving you, I think."

I couldn't help but laugh at Simon's comment, happy that the tension was broken.

"Listen, call him again later. He'll have had time to cool off."

"Thanks Simon," I said, grateful for his advice.

"And get this Mark slash demon thing resolved quickly. Like, maybe before Derek gets home?"

I nodded gravely. "Believe me, my first call when I get home tonight is to Jaime."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: At long last, here's Chapter 8. I take full responsibility for this being so late, aside from being insanely busy, I also had terrible writer's block, but fortunately the lovely and talented Briee took pity on me and gave me a hand getting this chapter finished. Chapter 9 should follow pretty quickly. Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers, we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>I was an idiot. I was a <em>big<em> idiot. I should go off and set up a little idiotic kingdom full of other idiots, but I would be the queen for the simple reason that I am SUCH AN IDIOT!

Only then did I realize that I had half-shouted the last few words aloud and I was now getting some pretty strange looks from passersby on the street. Sighing, I reluctantly squared my shoulders and headed into a coffee shop. Tori was waiting at a table, her hair shoved carelessly out of her face as she created code in a frantic, staccato rhythm.

"Your hot chocolate is waiting," she said without looking up, gesturing at the counter. "It's been paid for."

"Thanks."

The guy behind the counter was a Justin Bieber lookalike, and I had to hide a grin as he "casually" tossed his long bangs out of his eyes before handing me my drink with an extremely friendly smile. "My name's Tom," he said, not letting go of my cup. "If there's anything else, I'm all yours."

Yikes. I'm pretty sure my neutral, people-friendly grin turned into a ok-dude-back-off sort of look. Derek always says that I shouldn't be so afraid to be more direct, but it just goes so against my nature. Ugh. Even thinking of Derek just made me mad all over again, and I yanked my cup out of Tom's hand with a sound that had Tom recoiling and Tori's head coming up in shock.

She stared at me the entire time I marched over to the table and threw my bag into an empty chair with a little more force than necessary.

"Ok, either wolfie came back and saw that tool drooling over you or you just _growled_ at him."

Crossing my arms petulantly felt a little juvenile, but I had seriously had it with guys these days. I had a boyfriend who was mad at me for trying to protect him like he was always trying to protect me, a clueless father _I_ was trying to protect from my crazy life, a pervy demon wanting to make whoopy, a peeping-Tom ghost harassing me and now _Tom_, all of them slowly driving me insane.

"Yeah, well, I've had it with men right now," I grumbled, staring at my reflection in the window.

Tori smirked, and I heard several little clicks as she saved and shut down whatever she had been working on. When she was done, she closed the lid of her laptop and focused. That's one good thing about Tori; when she pays attention to you, she really pays attention.

"Ok," she said, wrapping her hands around whatever high-octane caffeinated drink she was currently abusing. "Give me a quick run-down of what we know, then tell me what happened with Simon today and we'll figure something out."

Taking a deep breath, I watched my reflection as I pulled myself together, digging down for that iron core that had gotten me through the early days of discovering my powers.

"Here's what I know: I killed Mark. His soul is now bound to me in some sort of sick way. We've tried every possible banishing spell that we can get our hands on and we can't get rid of him no matter what. I screwed up by not telling Derek right away, but then it felt like it was too late. Then, my best buddy Valefar decided that he wanted to assume human form and make little demon-necro babies with me. I – obviously - told him hells to the no. He offered to possess Derek instead, seeing as how I supposedly wouldn't mind getting knocked up with demonic spawn if it was by him, but then that would add a werewolf component to the demon-necro babies, and wouldn't those just be the most messed up kids ever." A breath before I continued. "He possessed Derek to try and prove that I wouldn't mind the whole possession thing. Derek now knows there's something really wonky going on and is frustrated with me because I'm not being straight with him. And now I really need to talk to him, and I really wanted to go to Stonehaven to talk to Jaime this weekend and…and…" Furious with myself, I burst into tears, getting even more upset at my inability to hold them back. But even as I hated myself for the weakness, it just felt so good to let it all go, to freak out a little bit and admit that I was in way over my head.

"Ok." Tori's expression didn't even change; I had to give her credit for not pulling a shock-and-awe on me. "You wanted to talk to Jaime this weekend, right?"

"Yes." I pulled a couple of napkins out of the dispenser and blotted my damp cheeks. "I was just really hoping to confront Valefar or Mark with her next to me and able to see them."

Hissing erupted from the cappuccino machine over in the corner, which partially covered Tori's snort. "Hello, Chloe, this is the digital age calling."

Frustration made my temper a little shorter than usual, and I found myself snapping back, "Yeah, Tori, I know how to use a freaking computer, ok?"

A couple of years ago that would have triggered a full-on rage directed at yours truly, but now she just grinned at me, her fingers toying with a stray lock that was curling around her neck. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd be such a bitch." Clasping her hands, she lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "I'm so proud!"

"Get to the point," I grumbled, tacking on a "please" as a belated attempt at politeness.

"Skype her," she said simply, instantly dropping the act and getting back to business. "Wolfie's obviously not going to be any help, and you don't really have time to get to Stonehaven before your deadline with what's-his-face tonight."

Crap. I hadn't realized how late it was…Valefar had given me until tonight to answer him. Remembering that, I wanted to cry again, but instead I sighed and grabbed my purse.

"You're right. Let's go back to my place so we'll have some privacy."

Justin Bieber/Tom eyed me from under his bangs with a tentative half-smile, but I just slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder and waited impatiently for Tori by the door.

We got back to my place and Tori set everything up. I then texted Jaime and asked her if she was free to Skype. Within half an hour, she was online and our video call was set up.

"So why couldn't a simple phone call work?" Jaime asked after we said our hellos. "And why is your boyfriend here sulking? When I asked him why you hadn't come along, he got moody and mumbled something before stalking away. Rude, if you ask me."

"He's mad. He knows I'm hiding something from him."

"Are you pregnant?"

"No!" I all but screamed.

"Sorry," Jaime said, laughing. "It's just the first thing that popped into my head. Is this about the ghost thing?"

"Mainly, but I have another problem. See, there's this demon…"

"Say no more. They are tricky devils. Want you to do their bidding because as much as they think they are all powerful, without necromancers, witches and warlocks, well they wouldn't get too much accomplished in this world. Except produce offspring of course." Jaime stopped for a moment. "Did a demon want you to have his babies?"

"How did you know?"

"Back in the day… Wow, that makes me feel old…Anyways, back when I was just coming into my powers, I had a run-in with a demon who offered me something that I really wanted and asked me to have his baby in exchange. He took on the form of this nice Spanish-looking man, but the eyes were all wrong. I managed to get him to help me in exchange for something else, but it took some convincing for him to leave me alone."

"Valefar - the demon - tried coming to me as Derek."

"You mean he took on Derek's appearance?"

"No, he possessed him. I never told Derek what happened but he knows something's up. I think that's part of the reason why he went up to Stonehaven without me."

"Not that I'm taking his side," Jaime said, "but I kind of see his point. He's upset that you're keeping something from him. Do you blame him?"

"No, but it doesn't stop me from being hurt."

"By being truthful with him, you could have avoided him being hurt and in turn indirectly hurting you."

I knew she was right and I told her so. "Unfortunately, though, acknowledging that I screwed up doesn't solve my demon problem. He told me he can make Mark go away for good. In return, he wanted me to spawn his child. I told him no. When he possessed Derek, I told him to let him go, that I would do whatever else except that."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because none of the banishing spells worked against Mark. He always found a way to come back."

Jaime was silent for a few moments and I wondered if my computer had frozen. "I need to call some people. I'll call you back later."

We said our goodbyes and I asked Jaime to ask Derek to call me, since he was ignoring my calls. She told me she would see what she could do and logged off.

Sagging in my chair, I looked over at Tori.

"Think we'll get to kick some demon butt?"

Within an hour, Jaime called with a plan, though it was still in the developing stages. The witch and warlock couple she called - I think their names were Paige and Lucas - were going to look up spells that could help, but they knew more or less what had to be done.

Our plan was in place and I was ready, but Valefar never showed. I heard Mark's voice trying to talk to me, but it sounded far away. I put the volume higher on the t.v. to drown it out and by the time I was ready for bed, he was silent.

The next morning, I was uneasy about Valefar's no-show. What could it mean? Had he decided not to make a deal with me? Had something kept him away? What did demons do with their spare time?

Since I had no answers to these questions, I decided to try Derek's cell again.

"Hello?"

"Hey." The casing of my phone creaked from the pressure of my grip on it. It was so good to hear his voice.

There was silence on the other end. "How are you?"

"Tired," I replied. "I haven't slept well since you left."

"I'll be back tonight."

"I know. I was hoping I could see you."

"I don't know when I'll be home."

"Oh." It was my turn to be silent. "Well if you're home early enough could I stop by?"

"I'll come over."

"Promise?"

"I'll see what I can do."

He was brushing me off. "I would really like to see you tonight. I wanted to talk to you about some things."

"Yeah, sounds good." In a softer tone, he added, "I'm sorry about leaving you behind. I have to go. We'll talk later."

As I listened to the dial tone, I was shocked. Derek rarely apologized. Could he truly feel bad about leaving me behind? Did Jaime mention something?

That evening, I waited impatiently for Derek to call me. As much as I wanted to get him on the phone as soon as possible, I knew that if I shouldn't push it. He was hurt and I needed to fix things, but he needed to come to me. I knew it was the right thing to do… but that didn't mean I liked it.

Around ten, I shut off the light and got ready to go to bed. As I crawled between the sheets, I heard someone come into the house. Thinking it was my dad, I peeped my head out of my door into the dim corridor. "Dad?"

"It's me." The deep voice of my boyfriend registered and I was shocked. He never used the key I gave him to get in. He liked the ritual of knocking and being allowed in.

"Derek," I said, relieved. "I'm glad you came over."

"I wanted to see you," he said. I moved over so he could come into my room. As soon as I had closed my door, Derek was pressing me up against it. His lips crashed into mine and I could feel his desire pushing against me. He kissed my neck and bit it softly. His hands went up my shirt, igniting my skin and he cupped my bare breasts.

I moaned as he rubbed his thumb against my nipple. Pulling my shirt off, he placed his mouth on the hard nubs and I could feel myself getting turned on.

Derek got on his knees and started kissing my stomach above the waist of my shorts. His hands moved up my legs.

"Derek," I moaned, "look at me."

He did as I asked. But when his eyes met mine, I recoiled. The light coming from the window shone directly onto Derek's face. But his eyes weren't the green I was used to.

They were orange.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed, wrenching my body away from him. My arms flew to cover my chest as I backed away in a panic.

"See how easy it was? You obviously want him. It could have been so easy to give you my child and you would have never known." With that, Derek's body crumpled to the ground.

I ran to him, no longer caring about my partial nudity. Clutching his head, Derek looked up at me with confusion and fury in his eyes.

"Chloe? What in the mother fucking fuck was _that_?" It was colorful swear, one I might have laughed at if it wasn't directed at me and the situation wasn't so dire.

"One minute I'm getting into the car to come talk to you, the next, you're standing in front of me half naked." He looked down at his pants. "What the hell is going on?"

Kneeling next to him, I took a huge breath. "Derek, we need to talk. I've been keeping something from you and I'm sorry."


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers and we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>"So not only has Mark been haunting you because you ripped out his soul, but a demon tried making a baby by possessing me twice. And you didn't tell me because you didn't want me to worry since I couldn't protect you. Am I getting this right?" It was always a bad sign when Derek's voice was this level. An even worse sign was how he wouldn't even look at me.<p>

I hung my head in shame. "I was hoping to deal with the problem before it became a problem. But then it spiralled out of control when the banishing spell didn't work."

"So you tried dealing with this on your own instead of talking to me." I could see the wheels turning in his head.

"It's not that I didn't trust you with this or something," I said quickly. "I just knew you were going to go crazy because you couldn't protect me against something you can't see, touch or hear."

Reaching for his hand, I had a moment of panic until he took it. When I looked up at him, I could see he was struggling. "Did you ever think I need to learn how to do that?"

I was a bit shocked that Derek was revealing way more than usual. His green eyes bore into mine, like he wanted me to read everything he was thinking. The hurt, the confusion. It didn't take a mind reader to know what was going on in his head.

"Jaime and I have a plan," I told him, feeling incredibly guilty. "You can help, as long as you can read the spell."

He nodded. "I don't like that you kept this from me. I knew there was something wrong."

"I know. I tried telling you before you left. But the thing with Tori…"

Derek nodded again. "You just have to trust me with these things."

"Let's just hope that this stuff doesn't happen again."

Valefar showed up the next morning as I was getting ready for school. "So, little necromancer, you truly do not wish to spawn my child. Your lover must be pleased."

"We had a deal, Valefar. I shouldn't even help you."

"Ah, but we had never agreed to anything just yet." I felt his breath on the back of my neck. "Now, will you help me find a body in which I can live in, or will you deal with your ghost on your own?"

"I'll help you if you deal with Mark."

"Fine. Your ghost friend has been dealt with. He is no longer a threat to you."

"When I have everything I need, I'll call you."

After school that day, I called Jaime. She was on her way from Stonehaven to help me with our plan. Armed with spells and ingredients, I felt hopeful that things would go back to normal soon. Well, normal for us anyways.

I missed Derek. Not just in the sense that he had left for the weekend, but the closeness we had had. I vowed that when this was all over with, Derek and I would spend quality time together. Maybe we could explore our newfound intimacy. The idea of spending a whole afternoon and evening in bed with Derek was good motivation. I just hoped our relationship was going to be okay once this was all over with.

By six, Jaime was knocking on the door at Kit's place and Derek and I got into her car. We drove in silence to the hospital in the next town, where our plan to get rid of Valefar would start.

The hospital was a medium sized place that only had two floors. Jaime and I found a ghost willing to tell us the name of the patients who were brain dead and whose family did not come by often. There were only two, so we picked the younger one. Derek and I then made our way to the front desk and asked where the patient - Sally Fraser - was, claiming we were family. The nurse told us the room number, eyeing Derek as if she wanted to eat him up. He didn't even seem to notice, which just compounded my guilt.

When we got into the room, there was only a nurse, who left quickly to give us privacy. She glanced at Jaime on her way out, a look of surprise on her face. She must have recognized her, though part of me wasn't sure if it was because she was famous or not. Either way, she left us alone.

Jaime pulled out the ingredients we were going to need from her bag. A large spell book came next, which she handed to Derek.

"Read this," she said, opening the book and pointing to a spell. "This will trap him in the body."

"Isn't that the point of the first spell?" Derek asked.

"Chloe and I's spell is to let the demon have control of the body so that the soul can't push him out."

"Is there even a soul in her?" I asked.

Jaime nodded. "Technically there is. She's probably asleep."

"Probably?"

"Well, she could also be awake and trapped, unable to leave but unable to move. And since she's not dead yet, as in her soul hasn't left her body, I can't talk to her."

"But then how is she technically considered dead?"

"Her body is dead, but she is being kept 'alive' by machines, which is like a loophole to the rules. Souls must hate the modern world."

I looked at Derek. "If I ever become a vegetable, please pull the plug."

He nodded. "Same."

"Now," Jaime said, "let's get this started. The faster we get this over with, the faster you lovebirds can get back to normal."

Derek went to stand by the door, closing it slightly. I gave him a quick smile for encouragement before closing the curtain around us and Sally.

Looking at the woman in the bed, I felt bad for her. I didn't know who she was, or what led her to her current state. But the idea that her soul might still be alive in her, and that we were using her to get rid of a demon, made me feel sick.

Jaime pulled out a pair of scissors and cut a small piece of Sally's hair.

"I know this is hard for you," Jaime said quietly, placing the hair in a bowl. "But at least her soul will be released after this. So not only are you freeing her when her family can't seem to do so, but you are also helping you and Derek."

"Will she know what's going on?"

Jaime pursed her lips. "Chloe, I'll be honest: I have no idea what's going to happen. But I know that if we don't try something, the demon will win. Maybe not today or tomorrow but he will."

I nodded in determination. "Let's do this."

Summoning Valefar was easy; he had been waiting for me to call him. "Ah, little necromancer. I see you brought in some help. Couldn't do it on your own?"

"She just wanted a second opinion," Jaime answered. I was surprised at her moderately differential tone, so different from her usual flippant self.

"Chloe might have denied my offer to spawn my children, but how about you? You're very pretty and still fertile." If he would have had a face we could see, I'm sure he would have been checking her out.

Jaime made a face but still seemed somewhat pleased by the compliment. "No, thank you."

"What a pity," Valefar said. "Fine then. Proceed."

I started mixing the oak ash with sea water, then added some crushed quartz. Jaime started chanting in a language I didn't know but I had a feeling most spells were in the same language. Latin maybe? But now wasn't the time to ponder, since I had to get the mixture perfectly. I added the last ingredient, a coil of shed snake skin, and a blue flame ignited for a second.

The woman on the bed suddenly jerked and she started clawing at the tube in her mouth. I could hear Derek's low chanting in the background and my heart started beating wildly in my chest.

"You tricked me," said the low, raspy voice coming from the woman in the bed. Her head turned towards us, her eyes glassy and unfocused, the orange dulled.

I could see the body thrashing, as if Valefar was struggling to get out. I stood watching it happen, shocked and unable to move. Jaime was the one who moved to pull the plug of the machines, essentially killing Sally Fraser. Derek ran in to grab me and we rushed out of there just as the alarms started going off. We narrowly missed being trampled by doctors and we left the hospital without a backwards glance.

The drive home was silent, much as it had been on the ride there. I was still a bit shell shocked from having seen that poor woman's body thrashing on the bed.

I hoped for her sake that she didn't feel a thing and that her soul had already crossed over.

That night, I was too shaken to go home, so Derek put me in his bed with a shirt and a pair of boxers of his. But as he went to leave I stuck out my hand, silently asking him to stay with me.

He lay down next to me, wrapping me up in his arms. Only when he kissed the top of my head did I finally start relaxing.

"She was innocent," I said. "She had nothing to do with this fight."

"The woman?"

"Sally," I replied. "She had a name. She had family."

"Chloe," Derek pulled me away from his chest so I could see his face, "she was already dead. Her family was keeping her alive with machines. That's not a life, you even said so yourself."

"I know, I know," I said. "I just…" I blew out in frustration. "I feel like she was an innocent bystander. And we pulled the plug."

Derek smoothed my hair. "Listen to me. You told me that if you were ever like that, that I should pull the plug. Don't you think that this Sally Fraser would have wanted the same thing?"

"I guess so," I said.

"So just think of that. You did her a favour." He kissed me softly. "Now I think it's time we sleep."

I nodded, getting comfortable in his arms. But sleep wouldn't come. I opened my eyes and saw that Derek wasn't sleeping either.

I leaned up to kiss him, and he kissed me back. But we didn't break away after a moment. The kiss continued. Derek slowly moved me to my back, putting some of his weight on me. I opened my legs to give him room between them.

The kisses stayed sweet, nothing hot and heavy about them. But it was building a fire in us both, which I could tell by the way Derek started slowly rocking into me. His hands found their way to the hem of my shirt and he slowly moved it upwards. I could feel him stroking my skin softly, as if he was afraid I would break. I leaned up to let him know he could take it off me.

His shirt came next so that when he leaned down to kiss me again, our skins could touch. The heat of him made me crave him closer.

I felt his lips move downwards to catch my nipple in his mouth. His soft tongue flicked against my skin and I squirmed at the feel. Derek continued this for a few minutes on each nipple before moving downwards.

Shimming down the boxers I was wearing, Derek put his nose right where my panties were wet. He inhaled softly and shuddered. He nudged me, teasing me, before using his finger to move the material away. His tongue shot out to lick me and he groaned in approval.

He moved to take off my underwear and the moment they were off my leg, he was right back between my legs. He put his finger inside me, slowly sliding in and out. Once I was thrashing on the bed trying not to moan, he put his mouth back, this time concentrating on my clit. His tongue teased me relentlessly until I shattered apart.

"Derek," I moaned softly, "be inside me."

Derek pulled off his pants and boxers, springing free his erection. Reaching over to his bedside table, Derek pulled out a condom and put it on. He positioned himself between my legs and slid into me. He groaned, clearly enjoying the feeling. He went slowly at first, but gradually gained speed. I had to bite his shoulder to stop from moaning.

His body suddenly spasmed with his orgasm and I heard him groan my name into my ear.

We stayed still for a moment, relishing in our lovemaking, before Derek rolled off me. He grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and handed it to me before taking another one for himself.

He helped me get dressed into his clothes again and he put his boxers back on.

"I know we need to talk," I told him as he cuddled up to me. "But can we just do it tomorrow? I'm too tired to talk now."

He kissed my head. "That's fine with me. It's been a long day."

I had to agree.

But as I dozed off, I heard a sound I wished I would never have heard again.

"Chloooooe, I'm baaack!"

Oh. My. God.


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own the rights to Darkest Powers and we make no money from this._

* * *

><p>I've always considered myself a strong, capable person. I've lived through – and seen others live through – events that many people would have crumbled under. I've been shot at, kidnapped, injured and betrayed. I've experienced far too many deaths already and every day I face the reality of even more deaths on my conscience.<p>

With all of these experiences under my belt, you would think that a little thing like a ghost that I just can't seem to get rid of wouldn't be that big of a deal. But for the past week, my nerves had been strung tight with guilt and stress, so when Mark's voice echoed in my ears, I jumped like I had been goosed with a cow-prod.

Derek was out of bed in a blur of action. His skin stretched tightly across his shoulders, muscles coiled. "What is it?" he said harshly, eyes narrowed, scanning for a threat. "_Chloe_. What's wrong?"

"Oh, that's sweet," Mark's disembodied voice crooned in my ear.

For about a nanosecond, I contemplated lying.

"Mark." That one word seemed to sum it up well enough for Derek.

"Sonofabitch." The words ran together in a snarl, followed by the most animalistic growl I've ever heard from him while he was still in human form. "You bastard," he said louder, clearer. "You _fucking_ bastard, leave her alone!"

Mark's taunting continued, unabated in my ears the entire time, but I tuned him out, only catching the odd word as I struggled to focus on Derek.

"I've tried everything," I said softly. "I even made a deal with a demon, for heaven's sake."

His eyes alight with rank fury, he turned around and pulled me against him. I went without a struggle, too worn out to protest. "We're calling Jaime."

"But-" I was going to say that Jaime had already helped me to the best of her abilities.

"Dammit, Chloe, we're calling Jaime, we're calling Jeremy, we're calling the freaking North American Pack and we'll summon whatever and whoever the hell we have to to get rid of this piece of garbage. I refuse to let this go on for one more second. Got it?" The look in his eyes told me that 'no' would not be an acceptable answer.

The last thing I expected was to feel a lump in my throat at his take-charge attitude; normally I'd get annoyed and insist on looking out for myself. Except I had tried to handle this by myself and I had only made things worse. Time to accept the support and help that I was being offered.

"Yes," I said thickly. "I get it." I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders as I accepted Derek's help.

Derek wound up having to be the one to Skype Jaime; Mark – knowing we were trying our hardest to banish him for good – upped his harassment, screaming obscenities inside my head until I was so distracted I could barely put a coherent sentence together. Livid, Derek got a sleepy Jaime on the line.

Barely able to hear them, all I got was the impression of a lot of terse words on his part. Jaime seemed calmer, but dismayed nonetheless. Finally, Jeremy came on the screen, urging Jaime aside for a moment, his lips moving near her ear. She seemed skeptical, but nodded slowly and faced the webcam once again.

"-_whore, piece of worthless garbage, thinking that your mouth on his dick translates to love! He's just screwing you because you're there, you filthy fucking whore, he's got no emotions, no love in him, you're just an easy piece of ass for him, an easy lay, the minute you deny him, he'll be gone. You think you're powerful, you can't even get rid of me, you slutty_-"

I clapped my hands over my ears, gasping at the sheer vileness of his words. I had never thought it would be this bad. Jaime must have seen my sudden desperate movement, because she said something to Derek that seemed to satisfy him, and he nodded brusquely.

"Come on, kitten," he murmured, his voice unusually gentle as he picked me up and headed towards the door. Mark's voice followed, an endless litany of abusive words flowing around me, some of his thoughtless comments hitting sore spots and trying to take root.

Channeling my focus for a minute, I managed to put together a sentence that seemed understandable. "Where…are we going?"

He almost seemed to know to pitch his voice low to be heard through Mark's shrill tirade. "We're meeting Jaime and Jeremy halfway. Jaime said she'll take care of this."

"Wha-what is she…" Mark spewed forth another mound of garbage and my train of thought got derailed, but Derek seemed to understand that I was trying to ask what she was going to do.

"I don't know," he said, helping me into the car and buckling the seatbelt around me when my hands shook too much to do it. I hated feeling helpless but I knew that without Derek I would be slowly going insane on the bedroom floor. "Chloe." He waited until I processed his voice and met his eyes. "It'll be ok."

Love, warm and powerful, swelled inside me and for a moment Mark's voice faded into the background. "I love you, too," I replied with a little smile. Satisfied, he closed the door and loped around to his side, getting in and starting the car.

The drive felt like a dream. To deal with the neverending stream-of-consciousness ranting, I let my mind blank out a little, holding tight to Derek's right hand the whole time. I refused to look at the speedometer, knowing full well that I wouldn't like the number that I'd see, but at the same time, I knew I'd wish for it to be faster.

Derek's cell phone rang at one point and he punched on the Blu-tooth function. "Where are you?"

If I had had the mental faculties to spare, I would have rolled my eyes at his abrupt "greeting". Fortunately the Pack was just like him and Jeremy was definitely not going to take offence.

"There's a rest stop coming up at the next exit. Get off there, park at the rest stop and head a half-mile into the woods behind it. I've left you a clear trail."

"_You can't get rid of me, Chloe, little Chloe, little, tiny, weak, defenseless_ necromancer." He spat the last word like it was a dirty one. "_You will never get rid of me, sweetheart. I'll always be like this, in your head, in bed with you, watching you when you're bending over, offering yourself for that bastard's_-"

"Chloe! Listen to me!" Derek's frustrated tone snapped through Mark's and thankfully broke off his sentence before he had a chance to finish. "We're nearly there, ok? You're just going to have to hold on a bit longer."

Numb, I nodded. After sneaking a look at my face, I saw the muscles in his right thigh clench as he pushed harder on the accelerator, the engine responding with a roar.

One hundred million years later – or so it seemed at the time – we pulled into the parking lot at the rest stop. At the late hour, hardly anyone was there. Derek parked haphazardly across two spots, popped our buckles and hauled me over and out through the driver's door, striding briskly towards the woods.

Jeremy must have left a perfectly clear trail, because Derek didn't have to pause even once to find his way. He simply stormed through the woods, sheltering me against his body, his jaw locked but his hands gentle where they touched me.

Mark's ranting picked up again, and I had to seek out that blankness that was my only respite from him. Not much processed in my mind when I was like that, but I hazily saw Jaime's bright hair through the trees. When she saw me, she looked stricken, and her lips moved. I thought it was odd that Jeremy didn't answer her.

"Help her," Derek barked, tossing his sweater onto the ground before lowering me onto it. "Jesus, _look_ at her…this isn't right."

Jeremy touched his shoulder, drawing his attention. He must have issued an order or something, because the muscles in Derek's cheek twitched furiously, but he reluctantly obeyed, rising up with a lingering hand on my hair.

"It'll be alright." His words somehow made it through the haze of Mark's abuse, and I held onto them like the proverbial lifesaver.

Jaime knelt down next to me, one hand on my shoulder, her eyes meeting mine. "Mark, this has got to stop."

Seemingly delighted with having another person around who could hear him, Mark stepped up his abuse, this time including Jaime in it. Lucky her. But instead of reacting, she arched a brow, her mouth twisting into a half-smile.

"Oh, come on. I'd think you could be more creative than that." She rolled her eyes, being deliberately insulting. It felt like she was trying to buy time, but I wasn't sure for what. "You're still pretty new at this, aren't you? Do you seriously think you're the first pervy little prick to threaten me and tell me what you'd like to do to me?" She wiggled her pinky finger in the you-have-a-tiny-dick motion. "You'd need me to tell you if it was in anyways."

If I wasn't too seconds away from a mental breakdown, I would've laughed out loud. Mark's sudden silence was the verbal equivalent of a gaping stare, complete with the goldfish mouth, lips working but no sound coming out. And just as he inhaled, ready to lambast both of us with even more of his creative comments, I felt the air stir around us and I looked up in shock at the Amazon who appeared like an avenging angel behind Jaime.

"Sheesh, took your time, didn't you?" Jaime muttered to her, and received a glacial stare in return.

"I am the bloody *bleep* freaking *bleep* of the other side. I'm a very busy woman," the Amazon snapped, some of the words muted as if she wasn't allowed to say such words. Noticing me staring she studied me. "Huh, another necromancer. Interesting."

Apparently even Mark found her as fascinating as I did because he was still silent. I could feel his confusion that mirrored my own. This…woman, or whatever she was, was stunningly beautiful in a lethal sort of way. Nearly as tall as Derek, she was slender with sleek muscles and bikini-model curves shown off in her white wife-beater, skinny jeans and mile-high stilettos. Her long dark hair hung in an ebony curtain past her waist and her face was just as beautiful as the rest of her, all cunning angles and fantastic bone structure.

"Jesus, Jaime, she's just a kid," she said sadly as she looked at me.

Jaime's red hair swirled around her as she shook her head. "She's more powerful than I'll ever be, Eve, but she – we – need your help."

Eve's eyes focused on what I could only assume was Mark's form, which was still invisible to me. "Ah, yes. So this is the little shit."

"Excuse me? "Little shit"? And who the hell are you?" Mark's tone took on a belligerent note and I was finally able to see his form as he shimmered into our world.

A predatory smile crossed the woman's – ghost's? – face. "Someone whose job it is to take out trash like you."

"Fuck you, bitch."

She outright laughed in his face. "No, no, asshole. _You're_ the one getting fucked tonight." And before I could so much as blink, she grabbed the handle of a sword that was strapped over her shoulder and swung it free. Mark's face looked like he'd been poleaxed.

"N-no," he stuttered, taking a stumbling step backwards, turning as he tried to scramble away. "No, don't, please!" He sounded seriously scared but there would be no sympathy from any of us.

Eve slashed the sword forward on a muttered incantation. It burst into diamond-bright flames as it sliced towards Mark's ghost. With blinding brilliance, it slashed into him and they both disappeared in a furious gust of icy wind.

"Chloe? Hun? Are you ok?" Jaime's voice intruded. I realized I was staring at the spot where the two ghosts had vanished.

"Yeah," I said slowly, then with a sharp shake of my head, "yeah, I'm alright." Focusing on Jaime, I inhaled and exhaled a shuddering breath. "What the hell was all that? Who was that?"

Jaime was usually flippant and full of laughs, but she was grave as she stared at me. "What you saw, Chloe, can't be repeated to anyone except Derek. Do you understand?"

Nodding mechanically, I still voiced my question. "Why am I allowed to tell Derek?"

A little grin turned up Jaime's lips. "You'd just tell him anyways. But seriously, Eve is a…spirit guardian, I guess you could call her. I can call on her when I need a particularly nasty ghost taken care of. I should have just called on her from the beginning, but I was so convinced that I could get you through this."

Shivering in the night air, I looked around, hoping to see Derek. "Why did Mark come back? I thought deals with demons were usually kept."

"Valefar was pretty pissed off when we let go of the body we were supposed to allow him to inhabit. He probably used a loophole in our contract to justify not keeping Mark out of your way."

I voiced the question that was uppermost in my mind. "Will he be able to come back?"

Jaime waved as Jeremy and Derek appeared out of the recesses of the forest, Derek nearly jogging to get back that much faster. "Eve…isn't your typical ghost, Chloe. She'll make sure Mark won't ever bother anyone again."

Just before Derek reached me, I felt that swirl of air again and saw Eve striding towards Jaime, dusting off her hands, a satisfied smile on her face.

"That's that," she said, nodding towards me. "He won't be bothering you again, kiddo."

"Thank you," I said gratefully, letting Derek's body wrap protectively around mine. I hugged him. "It's alright, Derek, he's gone."

"He'd better be gone for good this time," he growled, glaring at Jaime as if it were her fault.

Eve chuckled. "God, he sounds just like Clay. Sure he isn't related?"

Rolling her eyes, Jaime let Jeremy give her a gentlemanly hand up from the ground. "Let's hope they broke the mould when they made Clay."

Temporarily ignoring Derek's questioning glance - he was surely wondering who Jaime and I were talking to – I offered Eve a smile. She started to return it, only to whirl around as another breeze tickled across my skin.

"My beautiful girl. I love you, baby. Be safe."

A flash of blond hair caught my eye before Eve hustled forward. "You can't be here. You know the rules."

And once again, she was gone with the ghost that had reached out to me in a hauntingly familiar voice.

Jaime looked stricken. "Chloe, was that…?"

Emotionally drained, physically exhausted and unable to deal with my reality for one more second, I sighed and tucked my face into Derek's neck as the tears started to build. "Yeah," I choked out. "That was my mom."


	11. Epilogue

**A/N: We'd just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all the readers who stuck it out with us this long. :) Well, the third installment of Chloe and Derek's lives after their escape from the Edison Group is complete, but I don't dare say that it's actually finished for good...Briee and I have way too many ideas that we're much too excited about to let this go for good, but we're both entering some pretty difficult phases of our lives. We'll do our best to continue our series, but I can't make any promises. Anyways, thanks for reading, we wouldn't write if people weren't reading our stuff! :)**

_Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers, we don't own the characters and we don't make any profit from this._

* * *

><p>I quite literally fell into my bed that night. My body had been under so much stress for such a long time that once that resounding silence penetrated my mind, I shut down for a while. Fortunately, Derek is more of a silent type, so he didn't go apeshit on me and ask me every four seconds if I was alright. Instead, he smuggled me back into the condo, helped me out of my clothes, handed over my pyjamas, herded me into bed and hopped in behind me, his bigger body surrounding mine.<p>

"Sleep," he ordered when I started to open my mouth. "I'm here to keep watch, and it's time you finally got a good night's sleep."

"Thank you," I whispered, feeling tears of relief slowly build and was rewarded with the weight of his arm as it curled around my waist, cupping one of my breasts in his usual sleeping position. Then the exhaustion pulled me under and I slept like one of the corpses I'm able to raise.

Only when I woke up the next morning did I feel able to deal with everything that had gone on the night before. Derek was gone, but his place next to me was still warm, so he had probably waited until the last possible second to sneak out.

I rolled over into his warm spot and curled up, inhaling his scent off of his pillow, my body instantly relaxing. Now was the time to think. So…my mother. My dead mother…Wow. She had broken through whatever rules governed the dead once before, getting me to safety in the woods outside Andrew's house. I had mistaken her for Aunt Lauren at first, which I thought was an understandable mistake to make. Jaime had been teaching me about some of the rules that souls had to abide by once they passed, and she had also explained how the afterlife worked.

My mom wasn't supposed to contact me. That's why souls had to seek out necromancers in the first place; communication with others after death was a big no-no. The rules were doubled for the family members of necromancers. Just because you could communicate with them doesn't give Great-Uncle Andrew the right to harangue you for the next thirty years because he didn't like that Aunty Esther ended up with his antique outhouse collection or something.

Also, one of the more important points that Jaime had explained was that the deceased and their family members needed the separation so that both could heal and gain some perspective. A necromancer had the power to remain in constant contact with a deceased loved one; in essence, they could postpone the grieving process indefinitely. Not healthy whatsoever.

In my case it was particularly important; my mother had died when I was so young that I knew very little about her in a woman-to-woman sense, or even a mother-and-daughter sense. If I was able to contact her whenever I wanted, I knew that there was no way that I would be able to keep it to a reasonable amount of visitation. There was just so much that I wanted to know, that I wanted to ask her, that I wanted to share with her. So although it killed me inside to know that she was accessible to me, I also understood the necessity of keeping my distance.

"Chloe?" My dad knocked on my door. "I'm leaving for the airport in an hour. Feel like spending a few minutes with me before I go?"

"Coming," I called, pushing myself up and reaching for my robe. The doorbell rang and I smiled. Trust Derek to sneak out, dash home for a shower and a change of clothes and come right back, probably with breakfast. My heart speeded up when I realized we'd have the place to ourselves as soon as my dad had gone.

"Derek's here!" Dad called, and I heard the muted crinkling of a paper bag. Sweet…he had brought bagels. Mouth watering, I realized I actually had an appetite and I shoved my feet into my slippers and opened my door. So many people had died, but right now it was time to be with the living.


End file.
